Ryan Martin Will Represent Gauchos at NCAA Championships

May 29, 2011

EUGENE, Ore. -- The Gauchos will be sending Ryan Martin to the NCAA Championships as the sole representative for UCSB after Amanda Moreno and Jean Lightfoot failed to advance beyond the Preliminaries on Saturday.

Moreno experienced a foot injury with 350 meters left in the last lap of the 5k preliminaries that did not allow her to finish the race. Moreno's top qualifying time this year was 15:58.02 which she ran at the Mt. SAC meet, breaking the Big West conference record as well as the UCSB school record.

Lightfoot competed in the shot put and discus events this weekend and caps her season with her farthest throw in the shot put measuring 51'0" which second on the Gaucho all-time list and discus mark at 163'3" which ranks fourth in the discus all-time list.

Martin won his heat in the 800 meter yesterday where the top three competitors from each heat plus next best three times advance to the NCAA Championships. Martin clocked in at 1:48.70 in the quarterfinals and held the ninth fastest time. The eighth fastest time was 1:48.35 held by Nathaniel Litwiller of Sacramento State. 1:48.35 On Thursday Martin ran 1:50.33 where he placed second in his heat.

Ryan Martin will be the only Gaucho headed to the NCAA Championships which will be held June 8-11 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.